Capital Region residents lament over Syria's decline

Civil war saddens 3 area residents who met with president eight years ago

Dennis Yusk, Times Union

By Dennis Yusko

Updated 7:02 am, Sunday, September 22, 2013

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace activists who paid Syrian leader Assad a visit in his prez palace in 2005, on Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013 in Colonie, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union)

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace...

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace activists who paid Syrian leader Assad a visit in his prez palace in 2005, on Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013 in Colonie, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union)

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace...

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace activists who paid Syrian leader Assad a visit in his prez palace in 2005, on Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013 in Colonie, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union)

Carole Ferraro, left ,Diane Reiner and John Amidon, area peace...

A view of an interior courtyard of a home in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

A view of an interior courtyard of a home in the city of Damascus....

A view of an archeological dig in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

A view of an archeological dig in the city of Damascus. (Diane...

A view of homes in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

A view of homes in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special...

A view of shoes in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

A view of shoes in the city of Damascus. (Diane Reiner / Special...

A photo from 2005 of John Amidon, foreground left, Diane Reiner, foreground second from left, and Carole Ferraro, third from left, with others and Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, second from right. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

A photo from 2005 of John Amidon, foreground left, Diane Reiner,...

Photograph from 2005, of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meets with westerners including some Capital Region residents. (Diane Reiner / Special to the Times Union)

Three Capital Region residents who once met with Syrian President Bashar Assad say they are saddened by the country's descent into violence.

They want the U.S. to peacefully defuse the civil war in Syria.

The Middle East nation has spiraled downward since Diane Reiner, John Amidon and Carole Ferraro visited Assad in a bid to promote peace eight years ago.

Since then, a vicious fight for power erupted in 2011 that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 Syrians and caused more than 2 million to flee the country.

The three traveled to Iran and Syria in September 2005 as part of a 13-member mission sponsored by Conscience International, an Atlanta-based humanitarian group.

They spent four days in Syria as citizen diplomats as the country and the U.S. quarreled over the Iraq war. The visit started with a two-hour talk with Assad, who assumed control in 2000 when his father died after a 30 years in power.

"What struck me was that in the midst of a tense, hostile area, we were welcomed amicably," said Ferraro, 68, of Schenectady. "He was very cordial."

Things have changed. Many world leaders now accuse Assad of committing numerous human rights violations in an ongoing civil war, including launching an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400. The extreme violence on both sides of the civil war has shaken Reiner, Ferraro and Amidon, who went to Syria to build bridges. It has not, however, shattered their belief in a peace process.

The delegation met with Assad in the presidential palace in Damascus. Reiner, 67, of Cohoes, said the leader made a good impression. "At the same time, I came away feeling that I didn't know what to believe," Reiner said. She said she felt pained and confused when comparing the 2005 visit — filled with extravagant meals and visits to ancient mosques — to today's images.

Having studied medicine in London in the 1990s, Assad spoke fluent English. On the second day in Syria, the group, accompanied by human rights advocate Bianca Jagger, spent an hour with Assad's wife, Asma.

President Barack Obama has implicated the Assad government in orchestrating the Aug. 21 rocket attack, and the administration sought congressional approval to bomb military installations in Syria. Assad has denied responsibility. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently intervened with a plan that calls for destroying Syria's chemical weapons. U.S. leaders cautiously support the proposal.

The timeout gives the U.S. a chance to act as an enabler of peace, rather than policeman of the world, Ferraro said.

The widening civil war now involves disparate rebel groups, with the government reportedly fighting, and possibly employing, foreign fighters and jihadists. Amidon, 66, head of the Albany chapter of Veterans for Peace, counseled disarmament and negotiations. He called the options in Syria troublesome.

"One could do far worse than Assad in my opinion, even though we would like better at the same time," he said.